The Tiger of the Periphery
by Pobodys Nerfekt
Summary: In which Sienna Khan leads the usual suspects as a mercenary mechwarrior company, complete with all the shenanigans that ensue in such a setting. (I really didn't want to clutter the battletech category with one-shots, so I figure I put anything I write into a nice little collection to make life easier)
1. How do numbers work?

**I figure I should probably start my battletech oneshot collection with something that stands out, so this first chapter is going to chronicle the adventures of Sienna "math hates me" Khan and Winter "actually good with numbers" Schnee. This starts around the end of A Simple Exercise, the oneshot I did for ladybug week.**

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"I must admit, it is quite nice seeing those two work with one another."

Sienna Khan looked away the screen beside her with a small smile on her face to the woman next to her: chief logistics officer Winter Schnee. Once a mechwarrior under the banner of house Steiner to get out from her father's control, an operation gone wrong saw her down a pair of legs and medically discharged. Of course Winter couldn't allow herself to fall under papa Schnee's puppet strings again, so she, along with younger sister Weiss, stole away on a ship (not before using their father's money to get Winter type three prosthetic legs) and took odd jobs around the periphery until finding themselves under Sienna's employ. Weiss served as a mechwarrior, taking to the battlefield in a 40 ton Arctic Wolf while Winter found herself assisting with the various number issues a mercenary crew was one to deal with.

"You certainly have a point" Sienna responded. The duo had been watching the two mechwarriors, Blake and Ruby, run through close quarters exercises and, seeing Ruby do what she did with her Raven, brought a peace of mind to Sienna. She thanked whatever higher powers may exist that Blake was in a proper relationship now with someone who truly cared for her and her well-being, unlike _that asshat_ from the Taurian Concordat that didn't understand the meaning of no. _And to think that he used to be one of my better pilots_ Sienna thought, being reminded of his prowess as a mechwarrior. Don't misunderstand, Adam (the Taurian in question) was still an asshat, but the way he could pilot his modified 65 ton Jagermech was a sight to behold and barely left any hostiles standing. Of course then he got overconfident and, while on an assignment, got his mech's head blown off by a PPC shot from a 35 ton Panther because the Draconis Combine, the opposing force of that particular contract, thought that it was a good idea to stick a PPC on a light mech. Sienna certainly wouldn't argue with the kind of results it could get and very few of her crew mourned Adam's demise.

"As much as I'm sure we would like to watch those two some more, we still have numbers to run." Winter said, looking to refocus Sienna's attention. Pulling herself away from the moment the lovebirds were having, Sienna reluctantly returned her attention to the main screen in front of her. Sienna could feel her headache returning gradually the more she reviewed the numbers and data in front of her, pitying those who believed that leading a company of mercenary mechwarriors was an ideal lifestyle of glory and fame when in reality it was more akin to managing an office complex with less boardroom meetings and more fighting. Being the leader meant picking out contracts available from the Mercenary Review Board within means of completion, negotiating terms and payment, then getting the job done and getting paid. Sure getting income was nice, but all of it was devoted to paying the bills to keep the cruiser her crew used as a home base in proper shape, paying off bank loans (because god knows the only thing scarier than an enemy lance of assault mechs is a crew of debt collectors), paying the mechwarriors and other personnel under her command, paying bills to keep the battlemechs the warriors used in top shape, and several other possible tabs Sienna would have to pick up. Even then there is more than just paying bills: she had to make sure the ship was stocked up on supplies every so often, ensure the morale of the crew wasn't dipping (which wasn't terribly hard because they could usually solve that problem themselves), and none of this even takes into consideration the possibility of any of her warriors getting injured or worse while on contract, meaning she would have to issue orders to other warriors to fill in gaps. It all got simply overwhelming at times, and for all her talents, paperwork was her greatest weakness.

"To think that for all of the _Tiger of the Periphery'_s accomplishments and feats, her greatest enemy is arithmetic." Winter said with a teasing tone.

"This tiger is going to show you her _claws_ if we don't get this nonsense done together." Sienna replied, not having any of Winter's shenanigans today. Raising her hands in a manner that signaled the conclusion of such shenanigans, Winter returned to the main screen where the month's expenses were listed and continued from where they left off. It might have taken a little longer than the two women would have wanted (mainly because Sienna refused to believe that the MRB charged _that_ much for processing fees for 5 minutes until Winter talked her down from calling the organization with a strongly worded argument in mind), but eventually they managed to get their finances together and pay off the month's expenses. Recent contracts have left their C-Bill numbers at a favorable amount, so they wouldn't have to do as many contracts in the future to cover costs. Didn't mean they were going to slack though, as the Tiger of the Periphery was in demand these days. Sienna stood from the chair in her office and stretched her arms after the ordeal, releasing a growl that caused Winter to feel her face heat up a little. Evidently Sienna noticed this and raised an eyebrow at Winter, who promptly threw a glare at the commander.

"Don't be like that Winnie." Sienna teased, watching as the blush on Winter's face became a little more noticeable to the outside world due to the use of her nickname.

"Are you quite done? I think it would be a good idea to check in with Petal and Shade and give them pointers about their little exercise." Winter said, using Ruby and Blake's callsigns and pointedly avoiding engaging with Sienna.

"For now I think I am set on teasing you, but you do have a point about helping those two with their paces. Lets go chat with them." Sienna responded, lowering her smug grin into a smaller one and offering a hand to Winter, who took and and was helped to her feet. Leaving the door, Sienna and Winter headed for the simulator bays, looking forward to helping the aforementioned mechwarriors improve their prowess. Sienna's hand never did leave Winter's once they left the office, not that either of them cared anyway.

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**There is most likely going to be more content for this battletech au of mine, complete with rarepairs, so if anybody reading this has suggestions, feel free to provide some. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to them.**


	2. Backstory time with Cinder and Velvet

**This took a little longer than I would have liked, but I'm back on my battletech rarepair nonsense. This time we have Cinder "arson is a form of self expression" Fall and Velvet "understandable have a great day" Scarlatina throwing some backstory at each other. Also Yang is there. Set in the same universe as the previous chapter. Cinder drops a bad word or two so be wary.**

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"So this is your field report?" Sienna asked, motioning to the screen beside her. In front of her was Cinder Fall, the head of Ash Lance. As lance head, it was part of Cinder's job to give a situation report to Sienna (regardless of the logistics people watching them while on mission, but nobody would dare to bring this up because the last time that happened... we don't talk about what happened last time).

"Yes it is captain." Cinder answered neutrally, her facial expression and posture not betraying anything.

"You touched down on the planet with your lance to begin the mission and managed to locate the OpFor's base of operations within a short amount of time." Sienna started, going over the report for clarification's sake. Cinder responded with a nod of her head and a hum of confirmation.

"And if the communication logs between your lance are anything to go by, you believed the best course of action was, and I quote, 'copious amounts of flamer usage and incendiary SRMs to drive the target into the open.'" Sienna continued, raising an eyebrow at Cinder towards the second half of the sentence.

"Absolutely." was Cinder's answer, a visible amber eye brightening and a smile coming across her face at the memories of her recent mission.

Sienna gave the mechwarrior before her a look before continuing. "From there you and your lance then proceeded to torch the entire compound with the aforementioned copious flamer usage and managed to, as you predicted, force the target into the open."

The bout of slightly maniacal giggling Sienna heard from Cinder was all the response she needed. Running a hand through her hair and already feeling a headache start to come upon her, Sienna glanced up at Cinder, silently asking herself what she was going to do with the relatively young pyromaniac in front of her.

"We successfully accomplished the mission didn't we? I feel like that is the more important piece of information before us captain." Cinder told Sienna, a small grin still on her face. Sienna gave a sigh before straightening herself.

"Yes the mission was accomplished but that isn't the point I want to make here." Sienna began before she started lecturing Cinder about how extended flamer usage causes degradation to a battlemech's reactor and the operating costs of her strategies among other things. To be fair Cinder disassociated about halfway through the speech, but managed to bring herself back close enough to the end to tell the captain that she learned something from her lecture. Whether or not the tiger believed her was a different story, but Cinder was allowed to return to her lance's dorm room before she could get the answer to that question.

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Velvet Scarlatina was not quite sure what she was expecting when she looked up from her book to find Cinder, the leader of her lance and solid friend, returning to the room ash lance used as living quarters. It certainly wasn't Cinder barely acknowledging her presence before faceplanting onto her bed and letting out a groan that made it sound like Cinder got into a fight with a Draconis officer and barely won. Having an idea of what happened, Velvet set aside her book and set upon the task of consoling her leader.

"Your next line is going to be 'I got chewed out for my pyromania by the commander again.'" she started while running a hand across Cinder's shoulders, being familiar with this situation thanks to past experiences.

"I got chewed out for my pyromania by the commander again." Cinder stated despondently as predicted, voice muffled by the pillow her face was stuck to until she realized what just happened and shot up from her prone position, giving Velvet a flabbergasted look.

"How the hell do you do that?" Cinder asked, baffled at how well Velvet can predict a person's words. Velvet responded with a smug grin and a tilt of the head.

"Maybe one of these days I can teach you a few tricks on how I do it. Life on the border of the deep periphery teaches a person a few things."

"What is life that far into space like anyway?" Cinder asked curiously. She remembered that, while looking over Velvet's profile when she was assigned to her lance, Velvet's planet of origin was close to the deep periphery, but that was never really brought up between the two. Having it brought up now got Cinder curious, as the Draconis Combine native was not terribly well versed in the workings of that region of space.

"Honestly not much to message home about." Velvet started. "Very few HPGs, lots of prefab structures, and a lot of untouched landscape. That last one isn't really bad though, at least not where I lived. Ma was content to stick to the planet, but I grew up with my dad's adventurous streak and wanted to see what the rest of the stars had to offer. Managed to find myself a spot on the crew of a courier ship and the rest is history." Cinder nodded in understanding, the description that had been given not very surprising to her from what she remembered learning about that particular region of space.

"What about you Cinder? Whats the Combine like?" Velvet asked, feeling it natural that Cinder shared her backstory since Velvet told her about hers.

"Honestly you probably wouldn't like it." Cinder sighed. "I know I didn't. Too many eyes throughout their cities and all of the upper class people had sticks far enough up their asses to come out of their mouths. To keep a long story that I would prefer not to get into at this point in time short, the Combine likes to encourage the upper class to pursue artistic expressions and I figure 'why couldn't I do that regardless of being what these fools consider to be lower class?'"

"Let me guess." Velvet interjected. "You did what you currently do best and committed numerous cases of arson?"  
"I torched the _shit_ out of a bunch of cities on the planet Sakai before I was eventually caught, but the prison transport ship was attacked by pirates, whose ship I stowed away on before eventually finding my way to the Tiger's den." Cinder told her, eyes bright with excitement and a big smile on her face at reminiscing about this particular part of the past.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you weren't a particular fan of the way house Kurita was running things." Velvet said, a little unnerved but also holding a deal of respect for the pyro before her, taking it to an oppressive government like that.  
"I would have to answer that with something along the lines of it being an understatement." Cinder replied, toning herself back from her little outburst of energy.

Before Velvet could respond to that, the door to their dorm space was kicked open by the third member of Ash lance: Yang Xiao Long. The blonde Dragon pilot was well known for her energy and spirit, but clearly something had her in a particularly excited mood. Velvet and Cinder on the other hand did not share such an appearance.

"Yang you do that again and I am going to revoke your right to possess kneecaps." Velvet warned, still recovering from the sudden shift in scenery.

"Yeah what Velvet said." Cinder agreed, shooting a glare at Yang's sudden intrusion. "I was under the impression that you knew how doors work but clearly that still needs work."

"Maybe later but that isn't important. What I am about to show you is more important than that." Yang told them, jumping between them with a tablet in her hand and what appeared to be a video on pause. Accepting their fate because there really wasn't a way out of this one, Velvet and Cinder looked at the tablet Yang had as she pressed the pause button to resume the video. It took the duo a second before they recognized the mechs that Blake and Ruby piloted, watching the tail end of a training exercise between the two, which did not really surprise them as both of the pilots in the video made pilot training a habit. What did surprise them, and what was likely the reason Yang was showing them this footage considering the big smile on her face, was when the Raven Ruby piloted started nuzzling Blake's Shadow Hawk, causing both Cinder and Velvet's eyes to widen. Realizing now why Yang was as giddy as she currently is, Velvet and Cinder looked back up at their lancemate with a new gleam in their eyes.

"Is it teasing time? Because I think it is teasing time." Velvet said with some of Yang's energy finding its way to her.

"You bet your ass it is teasing time! We have work to do ladies!" Yang responded excitedly.

"Just try not to overdo it this time. I would prefer it if you weren't choked out for a lengthy period of time like the last incident." Cinder responded while rolling her eyes in mock annoyance. A plan having been created, Yang was first out the door, running off to the sims, while Velvet and Cinder shared a look that said "what are we going to do with her?" before following Yang's path at a slower pace. Better to let Yang get there first and get her jabs in and then show up later to help or hinder the elder sister's efforts. It was more fun that way anyway.

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**Hopefully the next installment won't take as long as this one did, but with college being college, who knows when it is coming? It certainly isn't me I'll tell you that. As always if you the reader have any ideas you want to potentially see here, feel free to leave a review or pm about the idea and I will see what I can do. As for next time: Reese and Emerald are sent to a derelict space station to see if there is anything previous visitors have left behind, but it turns out the real treasure of the derelict is the friend they make along the way.**


End file.
